July 7, 2026 • 46 mins
Sarah Hunte spent much of her life believing she had to hide parts of herself to be accepted.
After losing her eye as a baby, she grew up carrying a deep sense of inadequacy, constantly trying to maintain the illusion of normalcy.
But what began as a journey into voice acting eventually became something much bigger.
A revelation.
A reinvention.
And a decision to stop hiding.
In this episode, Sarah shares how she moved from self-doubt to self-authorization and why the life she thought was impossible may have been waiting for her all along.
✨ Sometimes your breakthrough isn't becoming someone new.
✨ It's finally giving yourself permission to be who you've always been.
🎧 Listen now on The Resilience Files: Unlocked.
#TheResilienceFiles #Resilience #Healing #PersonalGrowth #VoiceActor #ActingJourney #DisabilityAwareness #SelfWorth #MentalHealth #CreativeJourney #Storytelling
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
When you feel like life has dealt you a hand of
unfair cards.
Instead of voting, you doubledown.
You stuck in the game.
You faced battles.
You felt broken.
But hey, do us a favor.
Put your hand on your heart.
You feel that?
You're still here.
Welcome to the Resilience FilesUnlocked, where survival meets
(00:25):
transformation.
SPEAKER_01 (00:29):
Welcome back to the Resilience Files Unlocked, a
space where real stories ofresilience are shared with
honesty, reflection, and hope.
As you know, each episode weexplore are the moments in life
that challenge us, shape us, andultimately reveal the strength
we didn't know we had.
Trigger warning before today'sepisode.
Before we begin, we want tooffer you a gentle content note.
(00:52):
Today's episode touches onthemes of childhood trauma,
medical experiences, andfeelings of inadequacy growing
up.
While this story ultimatelymoves toward healing and
empowerment, some listeners mayfind it as parts emotionally
sensitive.
So please take care of yourselfwhile you listen.
I'm so excited to introducetoday's guest.
(01:12):
Today's story comes from SarahHunt.
She's a voice actor, creative,whose journey has been shaped by
both visible and invisiblechallenges, from losing her eye
as a child to navigating yearsof self-doubt, of academic
struggle, and more.
But you know what?
I'm not gonna tell you anymore.
We have Sarah here.
She's gonna read her essay ontoday.
(01:33):
And then we're gonna do what wedo here on the Brazilience
Files.
We're gonna break it down andget into it.
Hi, Sarah.
SPEAKER_02 (01:39):
Hi, thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01 (01:41):
Yes, thank you so much for being on.
SPEAKER_02 (01:44):
When I was 10 months old, I lost my right eye.
So my right eye is a prosthesis.
The loss of my eye wasn't one ofthose good losses where your
family celebrates the fact thatyou're alive because you had to
sacrifice a body part that wasdiseased.
This was an avoidable loss, andit caused a lot of grief,
(02:07):
particularly for my parents andfor me.
The trauma I experienced wasn'ta one-time experience.
It was a repeated traumathroughout my life, which
created a deep, dark well ofinadequacy within me, nourished
by decades-long pressure toperform and maintain a facade of
(02:29):
normalcy.
As a child, I was chronicallywithdrawn and shy.
My socket was irregular in thatit was prone to inflammation,
soreness, and infection everyseveral years, has always been a
renewed trauma because my sockethas basically rejected the new
eye by getting horribly inflamedand irritated for well over a
(02:50):
month until the socket gets usedto the new prosthesis.
I have had to adjust to a newprosthesis while returning to my
everyday life with one eyeinflamed and sore and one time
even bleeding.
Even after adjusting, my sockethas remained sensitive.
Every morning I clear a littlemucus from my eye with water and
(03:12):
saline solution before applyingmakeup to create as much of an
illusion of normalcy as Ipossibly can.
To say that I was plagued by anagging sense of inferiority
would be an understatementgrowing up.
This sense was a core belief, anunshakable truth of which I was
supremely confident because inmy mind I was irretrievably
(03:36):
flawed and insurmountablymarred.
These hardships were aggravatedby the academic challenges I
experienced in school.
I simply couldn't read at all,but I was never diagnosed with
dyslexia.
Standing up to read in class asa young student brought
(03:56):
debilitating fear.
I simply couldn't get the wordsout of my mouth.
My Caribbean parents' solutionfor this was to just make me
make me read a lot at home.
They even signed me up for areading contest at a local
library where I performed sowell that I got a prize of some
sort.
(04:17):
School was incredibly hard and Ilearned to outwork most
challenges.
Needless to say, I credit myparents with my relentless
refusal to quit and my abilityto press through fear and
failure, even in thepostgraduate and professional
programs from which I wouldlater graduate.
(04:37):
My journey brought me to voiceacting in 2020 when a friend
suggested I audition for a partin a dramatized audiobook.
Launching into voice acting feltlike I had finally found where I
belonged because I had beenpainting pictures with my voice
and often making people laugh indoing so throughout my whole
life.
(04:58):
While working on the dramatizedaudiobook, I invested in a new
microphone and jumped into all Ineeded to learn to get started
in voice acting.
This season was a real watershedmoment in my life.
For the first time, I was givingmyself permission to prioritize
my own dreams and interests.
(05:20):
Suddenly things made sense.
I felt a sense of purpose inchallenging people to doubt
their doubts and stopdisqualifying themselves.
As a Christian, I believe allthings will ultimately work
together in my favor.
I do love and live by the quote: In every adversity, there lies a (05:34):
undefined
seed of an equivalent advantage.
The work I was doing was insecret and in many ways
internal.
I told no one until I felt itwas time.
And even then, I only told a fewfriends who loved me and
(05:55):
understood me well enough not toundermine me.
After narrating severalaudiobooks, I pivoted to
corporate voiceover work andexpanded my work.
Always wanting to be takenseriously as a voice actor, I
signed up for my first on-cameraacting class a few years ago.
(06:16):
When I walked into my firstclass, the instructor looked at
me and said, You don't want tobe on camera?
I swatted down the questiondismissively with a no, I'm a
voice actor.
I knew who I was, and I knew ifthis man knew who he was dealing
with, the one-eyed little girl,he would never have asked me
that question.
(06:36):
But several months later, thestrangest thing happened.
One evening, while I satwatching the instructor guide a
student through a scene, Isuddenly felt something unlatch
on the inside of me.
It was as if a light had beenturned on.
Somehow, this concept ofon-camera acting, which had
never occurred to me as beingremotely possible or accept or
(07:01):
accessible to me, made all thesense in the world.
As I sat there, prayerful andsuddenly tuned into the voice of
my Heavenly Father, I realizedthat in identifying myself as a
voice actor alone, I had quietlycompromised myself because I was
satisfied to stay hidden.
(07:22):
Whereas I had once thought voiceacting was my destination, I
suddenly realized that voiceacting was always supposed to be
a foundation or an access pointto other ventures, including
acting on camera or on stage andstand-up comedy.
The thought literally took mybreath away.
My little booth was neversupposed to be a destination.
(07:45):
It was a door, much like thewardrobe in C.S.
Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, andthe Wardrobe.
Since that day, I have been castin three short films and nine
YouTube sketches.
As a creative who never had thechance to live out her creative
identity as a young girl, I havefelt very much like a precious
piece of broken and long-buriedpottery that has been discovered
(08:10):
at an archaeological dig.
The work I've been doing,including my study of the
Meisner technique in actingclass, is helping me overcome
decades of toxic performance.
I have spent most of my life onthe altar of other people's
expectations.
Now I am authorizing myself tomake myself proud.
SPEAKER_01 (08:30):
Wow, Sarah, thank you so much for trusting us with
that story.
There's so much honesty andvulnerability in what you
shared, and it's so beautifuland just eye-opening, you know.
Um wow.
Let's hop into it.
First off, I before we hop intoit, I should ask, how are you
doing?
How do you feel after you'veread that out loud?
SPEAKER_02 (08:52):
I feel good.
I feel good.
I mean, I've been, you know, onthis, in this journey of, you
know, just like I said, justuncovering these layers and
layers.
And it's um, you know, it isthere fear, you know, uh, you
know, there's fear.
But I decided I'm tired of beingafraid.
(09:15):
And as much as as much as Iwould like for the fear to go
away, it's like, you know,creatives lots of times we want
to wait until we're inspired tocreate.
We want to wait and encouragedto do what we're supposed to be
doing the whole time andconsistently.
And I'm realizing I I'm notsupposed to wait until I'm not
afraid, you know.
SPEAKER_01 (09:36):
I agree.
Yeah.
Let's go back to the beginningof your story.
You lost your eye when you werevery young, obviously, but the
emotional impact followed youthroughout your childhood.
It wasn't just a one-timesituation.
When did you first begin tounderstand you were different
than everyone else?
SPEAKER_02 (09:54):
Well, I think I always knew it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, because my eye was, itwas, you know, it always creates
the mucus, you know, and alwayshas.
So in the morning, my dad, youknow, would be so patient and
would help me with it.
And I always had a sense that Iwas different.
So being chronically withdrawn,that was why I was chronically
withdrawn.
Because I would walk around withmy head down and my my arms just
(10:17):
by my side.
I was, I struggled.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (10:20):
Yeah.
I'm so sorry that youexperienced that.
And I'm so happy that you hadyour dad and your mom there for
you, and they were verysupportive during that journey.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (10:31):
They've always been very much so.
SPEAKER_01 (10:34):
That's beautiful.
You talk about carrying a deepsense of inadequacy growing up.
How did that belief startforming in you?
Or really for you?
SPEAKER_02 (10:45):
How did that belief start forming in me?
I think um, you know, I thinkthere's something, it's not
something anyone said, right?
It's um which it could havebeen, but it would never was.
I'm grateful I was neverbullied, I'm grateful I didn't
have anybody say anything, youknow, to demean me.
(11:05):
But I think, you know, we we dohave a tendency to compare our
worst to others' best,naturally.
I think we do that.
And so I think for me that waswhat I did.
I think I looked around myselfand I couldn't find anyone, you
know, who's really struggling atall, at least to me, right?
It didn't people werestruggling, and so that's where
(11:27):
that came from, I think.
And then it didn't help thatthere was nothing that I felt
like I was good at.
You know, if you're if you're acreative and you're and you have
that as an outlet, and maybeyou're struggling academically,
you you at least have somethingyou can hang your little
self-esteem on.
And I didn't I didn't have anyof those things.
I, you know, I did play musicalinstruments, I played the piano
(11:50):
and the violin, but even thatwas hard, right?
The reading challenges Istruggled with in reading
English were the same challengesI had in reading music.
And so it was just a lot of workall the way around.
I was working hard.
SPEAKER_01 (12:05):
Yeah, well, definitely.
I I can tell you, I know youdefinitely were a hard worker.
And for your parents tochallenge you so much as you
read in your essay, we see thatyou described like feeling
pressure to maintain theillusion of normalcy.
What did that look like for youday to day as a young person?
Because I'm sure someone hearingthe story and they're wondering,
(12:27):
like, well, I have to do thesame thing, and wondering if
their story relates to yours.
What was your day-to-day lookinglike?
SPEAKER_02 (12:33):
I mean, I just did my childhood was just like
everybody else's.
Yeah.
And that's a testament to myparents, right?
Like, yeah, very much so.
Amazing parents who, you know,really struggled with this, but
decided, it's like theyconspired together and they were
like, she's gonna have a normallife, she's gonna do everything
she wants to do.
(12:54):
She wants to swim, she wanna,you know, so and and and I'm
able-bodied.
So I don't at all compare myselfto people who do have, you know,
challenges in that they theyhave limitations that limit
their physical capacity.
But because my parents were verymuch like, no, no, no, it's
okay, just do do, you know,we're gonna just do, we're gonna
(13:17):
pretend everything is normal orjust, you know, carry ourselves
as if everything is okay, itwasn't there was no room for me
to really talk and be able tovent or even share that I was in
pain.
So when I did cry about it,which I did, cry about, you
know, just having one eye,sometimes it would be at
(13:39):
bedtime, you know, it would belike, well, listen, you're
upsetting your mom, you know.
And so I I I learned to kind of,okay, I definitely don't want to
upset, you know, my folks.
So let me keep a lid on this andkeep just keep it to myself.
Yeah.
And so that that was just sortof a, I think, the place where
(14:03):
the unhealthiness kicked in.
SPEAKER_01 (14:05):
Yeah, discussing the unhealthiness of that when you
kept the lid on and compressingyour emotions and feelings.
And at the time, school wasobviously so incredibly
challenging for you.
Although you were going throughday-to-day as a normal young
person, you still had a set ofchallenges that other people
didn't experience.
(14:26):
And how when did you feelcomfortable enough to just be
like, I know that mom is gonnabe upset, but this is my true
feelings?
Or did you ever get to a pointthat existed like that?
SPEAKER_02 (14:38):
Yeah, no.
No, you know, I was, yeah.
And it it it was an it it wasjust something that was just too
hard, I think, for them.
Yeah.
Then also they, you know, myparents are are from Trinidad
and Guyana, and we were inEngland, and and so, and we
(15:01):
weren't, I didn't grow up with,you know, surrounded by family
and you know what I mean,extended family and all of that.
So I very much, it was just usfour.
It was just me, my mom, my dad,my brother.
And so they were very much like,look, it's us four, no more.
We gotta, you know what I mean?
We do what you gotta do, we'lldo what we have to do, taking
(15:21):
care of you guys.
And you know, you work hard,we're working hard.
And that was kind of theparadigm that I grew up in.
So yeah, it wasn't, it wasn'tlike anybody, and this was a
long time ago, I mean.
So, so it wasn't like theconversations that we're having
now about and you know,emotional grief and all of those
(15:42):
things.
These are not things we talkedabout.
And I don't to be candid, Idon't think Caribbean people
talk about it to this day.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:49):
Of course, no, uh, that's uh yes, I understand
completely.
Yeah, and also just in general,like, you know, as time grows
and changes, we know that theolder generation definitely had
a lot, had it a lot harder andtougher, and their parents
probably had very little empathyor you know, no capacity to
(16:12):
allow them to say things becausethey just had to work and get
home and feed, and it was acycle of that, and it was not a
lot of time to know like yourtrue feelings of how you're
doing.
It's about getting day to day.
We're working hard to make sureyou can go to school and good
night.
And um good night.
That's right.
Yeah, that's exactly what Imean.
Yeah.
During that time you were havingsome difficulty, you said
(16:35):
struggling with reading.
How did struggling with readingshape your confidence during
those early years?
SPEAKER_02 (16:40):
I had no confidence whatsoever, like at all.
It was the worst thing ever.
I mean, I know it wasn't theworst thing ever.
I again, I I know there's worse.
But I was actually just thinkingabout this as I was reading my
essay, like how far I've come,because I could not have done
(17:01):
that, right?
Like I would see the words and Ijust couldn't, I just couldn't
get them out of my mouth.
I don't know how to describe it.
And similarly, when I waspracticing piano and learning
how to sight read, I neverreally learned how to sight read
because I could see the note,and if you ask me what note I'm
looking at, I'd say that's D.
But to to make it sound like amelody, ah, no.
(17:26):
And I would spend most of mysemester when I got to college
playing piano, I'd spend most ofmy semester sounding like I
didn't know how to play at allbecause I was sight reading and
I couldn't remember where myhands had to go on the keyboard.
But once I didn't have to readanymore, because I'm a kinetic
learner, I I sounded immediatelylike like I had been playing my
(17:51):
whole life.
But uh yeah, I the theconfidence uh uh wasn't at all
there.
Um, it was completely scuttledby my inability to read and or
do math or science or you know,there wasn't anything I could do
well, it was bad.
SPEAKER_01 (18:09):
Oh, but you did your parents did they kind of push
you to be a part of a librarycompetition, right?
So when you uh got an award forthat, you know, reading books,
what was that experience likefor you?
Did that boost any of yourconfidence in reading?
SPEAKER_02 (18:25):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I have no recollection of thatcompetition.
Yeah, I don't know, you know,what what the parents for the
parents.
SPEAKER_01 (18:38):
You were like, I'm doing this and I'm out.
SPEAKER_02 (18:40):
I'm out, yeah.
And clearly I have no, I mean,because my mother talks about
it, and I'm like, okay, youknow, so I just repeat that
story, but I'm like, I rememberthe library.
I know we used to go there alot, but do I remember that?
Not at all.
I don't remember that.
SPEAKER_01 (18:54):
No, I understand.
It sounds like you were carryingthe law internally while trying
to like just function ineveryday life.
And you know, like you weretrying your best to also like in
a sense be performative and makesure that your parents, you
know, you listen to them and youwere like, okay.
And um, we'll get more into it,but I feel like as we make the
(19:16):
transition, you started todiscover your path in life.
And I feel like your storybegins to shift through
creativity.
So I wanted to know more aboutthat.
Like, at what moment did you saythat let me explore the arts and
use this as an outlet to, youknow, express myself more and
(19:36):
allow myself some freedom?
Like you said, um Yeah, that's agreat question.
SPEAKER_02 (19:42):
I I mean, I began to be involved in uh I became a
Christian in college and I beganto be involved in dance ministry
when I was an adult, like when Iwas quite, quite old, you know,
arguably.
So I had been dancing for awhile, and that was really my
(20:03):
only expression.
And it wasn't a limit, it was itwas great.
It was very, very, it's beenvery helpful.
It's been a safe place for me.
Dance has been a place where Ireally have felt like the one
place where I've been able tofeel safe, where I have felt
whole and where I have felt likeI feel God's pleasure, you know,
(20:24):
as I'm as I'm moving.
But to do anything else, Ididn't have the courage and um
always was afraid to do that.
Um I think I think the pandemicwas was the thing, you know.
Like I think that was the casefor a lot of people during the
pandemic.
It was a lot of soul searchingthat was going on.
(20:46):
I listened to there's a book bya woman named Bronny Ware called
The Top Five Regrets of theDying.
And I I listened to that bookvery early in the pandemic and
it wrecked me.
It really kind of challenged,provoked, and sh and really uh,
you know, shook me because oneof the top five regrets of the
(21:07):
dying is I I think actually thefirst regret that she talks
about is um is that people oftensay they they not living a life
that was true to themselves asopposed to what other people
expected of them.
Um and so that caused me to sortof begin this journey of really
just some deep introspection,digging in and figuring out what
(21:31):
I would like and really askingmyself those questions, because
you know, you get in the habitof being performative, like you
said, and you don't realize howmuch you aren't enjoying what
you do in your life.
And so uh that's that's whatcaused me to even mention to my
friend voice acting, and shehappened to have a friend who
(21:53):
was a novelist, and that's how Igot the audiobook, um, the
dramatized audiobook upon it.
SPEAKER_01 (21:59):
Nice.
unknown (22:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:00):
I love that.
So okay, you your friendmentioned to you about the voice
acting opportunity during thepandemic.
Yes.
And initially before then, wereyou drawn to voice acting?
Did you I know you've had somepassion for it, of course, but
when did you was your aha momentof like saying, you know what,
voice acting feels like a safeplace creatively?
SPEAKER_03 (22:22):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:23):
Because maybe people can't see me, or what was that
for you?
SPEAKER_02 (22:26):
Yeah, great question.
So I think I know I had thoughtof voice acting before I had
that conversation with herbecause I had actually purchased
a book.
I know I went on Amazon, I went,I ordered a book, I bought the
book, I got the book.
I never read the book.
The book stayed on my shelf.
Yeah, we all can relate to that.
(22:47):
Yeah, you do.
You're like, I have a book, youknow.
I'm I'm committed.
I got a book.
I didn't read that book.
That book stayed on my bookshelffor I'm gonna say a a year, a
couple years before I had anhonest moment with myself and
was like, oh, please give thebook to the goodwill.
At least let somebody, you know,somebody who's gonna read the
(23:08):
book, read the book.
And so I I ended up getting ridof the book and I didn't do
anything else with it.
And so it was really, it wasjust me, train of thought,
conversation with this, withthis woman I was working with at
the time.
She was like, Oh, voice acting.
I was like, Yeah, you know,because you think you hear about
how we're encouraged to identifythings that we do naturally and
(23:32):
then find something that kind ofis along that those vein that
vein.
And I've always played gameswith my voice.
I've always, you know, channeledmindsets, attitudes, you know,
people just being silly, justbeing just being silly.
So that's how that conversationcame up.
And then to your point aboutbeing hidden, I think when I
(23:54):
figured out that my closet wasmy studio, I was like, yeah,
this is this is amazing.
I didn't have to, you don't haveto clean up, you don't have to
dress up, you don't have, youknow, you don't have to do
anything except make sure thatyou haven't been consuming a lot
(24:16):
of dairy and sugar and that youdon't have a cold.
I mean, these are obviously youhave to take care of your your
vessel, but besides that,everybody guess how you look,
right?
And so because I was always sortof, not sort of, but always
preoccupied.
Like from the minute I wake upto the minute I close my eyes.
Yeah.
(24:37):
When I'm not in my home, I'mpreoccupied with, you know, my
eye and what's going on with it.
So not to have to be preoccupiedwith it, I that's why I thought
that I was onto something, youknow, that I had discovered
something.
SPEAKER_01 (24:50):
Absolutely.
That makes a lot of sense.
Uh completely makes sense.
You mentioned that you kept thisstream very private at first.
Why was it important for you toprotect that part of your life?
SPEAKER_02 (25:01):
I you know why?
I think I figured out that thiswas gonna be a huge change for
me.
Now, on the inside of me, itwasn't a huge change because I
had been making these littlebaby steps internally, doing the
introspection, doing theanalysis, you know, the
self-assessments.
(25:22):
So to me, these things madesense.
But you know what I mean?
But when you've got people onthe outside of you who are like,
oh, this is the box she fits in,this box.
And you take and do somethingover here in left field, they're
like not authorized.
What are you doing?
Like, why would you?
Are you out of your are youokay?
(25:44):
Yeah, okay.
Do we need to talk?
And you're like too manyopinions.
Yeah, it's so it's too muchenergy, right?
And so I actually tell peoplethis like if you're gonna do
something that's that for you isa big change or is big for you,
and you're seeing it, likewriting a book, I mean, sorry,
reading a book, starting abusiness, something big you're
(26:05):
gonna launch into, you don'thave to tell everybody.
In fact, it's probably best thatyou don't because the energy
that you take defending youridea, literally just writing
down the not even the words, butthe people's tone of voice when
they say, okay, right?
Like that communicates like, areyou really gonna pull that, you
(26:27):
know?
And so now your mind you'rethinking, she doesn't think I
could do it.
I don't know if I can.
All of that is time because it'senergy that's being sucked out
of you, and you need to takethat same energy and direct it
towards the target, which isyour goal.
So I think I realized for methat was what I had to do.
SPEAKER_01 (26:47):
Absolutely.
I think, yeah, sometimes I feellike the things we begin quietly
end up being the things thatchanges our life the most.
And I do believe too what you'resaying, especially if it's
completely different than thething you've been focused on,
the people know you most for.
You will sometimes have some, Idon't want to call them haters,
(27:07):
but some people that aredoubters because they've never
seen you operate in that lane.
So they're gonna have their ownpreconceived notions of like,
but it's gonna do this and thisand this and this and put
unnecessary, unfiltered thoughtsin your head that you don't need
to think about if you're alreadyin motion on it.
Stay emotion on it and focus onyour own vision, your own time,
(27:29):
your own what you want to do.
So yeah, I agree with you onthat.
Yeah, I want to hear about themoment of realization for you.
You described that a powerfulmoment during an acting class
where something internally justshifted inside of you.
Can you walk us through thatmoment when something that
unlashed inside of you, whereyou move from the moment of
saying, you know what, I don'twant to be seen.
(27:51):
I'm good.
He doesn't know me.
He doesn't know I have one eye.
So why?
Like, I'm not about to putmyself out there.
I don't want to embarrassmyself.
I'm scared about it.
To saying, you know what?
No, I deserve to be seen and I'mready to step out of this box
that I created myself.
I put myself in this box.
Very much.
Tell us about that moment.
SPEAKER_02 (28:11):
Yeah.
So I was sitting in this class,and it was just a just a
darkened warehouse where thisclass would go on, and it was
great, great class.
And the instructor was workingwith someone.
I don't remember anything elseabout the day.
It wasn't like I had had aparticularly deep and insightful
moment beforehand, or the wholeday had been spent walking on
(28:33):
the, you know, in a in a parkwith the breeze blowing.
But you know what I mean?
Like it wasn't like that.
But I just in that in thisparticular moment, as I was
listening to another persongetting instruction, because I
was always, always taking notes.
Like I'm always listening forstuff that may help me.
I'm not just waiting for, youknow, the instructor to be
(28:54):
instructing me.
And as I sat there listening, itwas it was like something, and
the the word I use is unlatchedbecause it was as if it wasn't
like a door flung open, right?
But it was like this door hadbeen, you know, locked and
padlocked and bolted, and allof, you know, like the the lock
on the door was like, you know,and it was like, you know, you
(29:19):
can you can you can actually youcan actually come in now, you
know, uh the you being, youknow, the the the you know just
concepts, thoughts, ideas,dreams, you know, these things
that I have, you know, been somuch like, no, these are things
that are forbidden.
These are things that I'mdisqualified.
(29:41):
I'm not I'm disqualified fromeven envisioning these things
for myself.
And it wasn't like I was like,I'm gonna be violent.
You know, it wasn't even that.
It wasn't about that at all, butit was just like I'm no longer
saying no to myself.
Good.
So yeah, the the unlatching wasvery much like, you know, you
(30:04):
know, like, you know, really,you know, and then in that I
went from because when Idiscovered voice acting, I have
been really excited.
I had and I'm still excitedabout it, to be clear.
Like I love voice acting, and I,you know, I love, you know, uh
the idea of narrating, you knowwhat I mean, all kinds of like
(30:25):
feature films or whatever.
It's not like I'm saying thatI've left that behind me, but I
genuinely was like, this is it.
This is this is where I belong,this is who I am, this is where
I fit, and nowhere else will Ifit.
Like I don't fit anywhere else.
And it was only in that momentthat I realized, and it was like
(30:46):
it was almost frighteningbecause you don't realize how
much you can convince yourselfof a lie.
You can convince yourself, andit's not that you go through a
lot of work to do it, butbecause your beliefs about
yourself are so strong, sothey're so strong and they're
(31:07):
warped, like they're justthey're like all the way wrong.
You don't and and you're like,yeah, this is true.
This is this is this is right,I'm right about this, and you're
wrong about it, like on everylevel, you're wrong about it,
you know, and you don't realizeit until something causes you to
be like, hey, hey, hey, hey, andyou're like, huh?
(31:27):
And you're like, wait, I wasasleep, you know.
Yeah.
But that's how it was in thatmoment.
I was like, yeah.
So it was it was intense, it wasgood.
It was like that.
SPEAKER_01 (31:38):
That makes complete sense.
Yeah.
I mean, if you continue to tellyourself something over and
over, you'll convince yourselfto believe it.
Your brain is just, you know,half a thought away from
believing a dream is reality.
A reality is a dream, and we arehere, you know.
I also think like this just likeshares for this is just a great
example for the audience oflike, what is that lie that you
(32:00):
continue to tell yourselfbecause of your own
insecurities?
And it's not bad to haveinsecurities.
We all have them in one way oranother.
And it's because of know our ownthoughts of the way that maybe
beauty is supposed to look or umeducation is supposed to look,
or by this age I should haveXYZ.
And we tell ourselves thesethings, but the reality is, is
(32:21):
like, no, we can make whateverthat reality for ourselves.
And I think it takes a lot ofsoul searching and a lot of
digging and a lot of like, Ilove myself enough to blah,
blah, blah.
And to putting that work in.
I want to know how did thatrealization for you change the
way that you saw yourself afterthat?
SPEAKER_02 (32:37):
Wow, that's a good question.
It didn't change the way that Isaw myself in a very radical
way, you know.
It wasn't like, yeah, it was, itwas, it was like I just began to
question, you know, but why notyou?
Why not?
(32:59):
You know?
Yeah.
So that's the question that justkeeps coming up as I continue
to, you know, hesitantly put onefoot in front of the other.
You know what I mean?
So it's not yeah, so it'sdefinitely not like I, you know,
woke up and was like, look atyou, honey, you're just as fine
(33:21):
as you could be.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Like it's it's every time thethe thought comes, and it comes
less now and less loudly nowthan it did before.
But yeah, I I've become strongerand quicker and more efficient
and adept at swatting it away.
(33:43):
You know, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (33:44):
Yeah.
Yeah.
What it sounds like to me isthat it gave you, it kind of
gave you permission to likeexpand beyond the limits that
you place on yourself of sayingwhy not me.
And maybe it wasn't a superiorradical change right away, but
to me, it like it allowed theseed that was already planted in
you to start taking root and tostart growing.
(34:06):
And I think the more that youwater that, the more that grows.
It's gonna become a veryfruitful tree that's gonna be
not only why not me, this is me.
It's gonna say, it can be youtoo.
And I'm gonna do this and thisand that and that.
And it's gonna be like, hey,look in the mirror like I am a
bad uh woman.
I do look good, and I am, youknow, and it's just like I think
(34:29):
you know, we all need that seedto be planted in us, and we need
that seed to kind of unlock andbe planted deep into soil where
it's worded enough thatsomething starts to grow, and
then boom, you get your why notme moment.
I appreciate you sharing that.
As um, we move to the end ofthis podcast episode.
I want to know just a little bitdeeper on who you became.
(34:50):
I feel like probably so much haschanged since that moment.
You stepped into on-cameraacting and you're doing more
creative work.
What has that experience beenlike for you?
And are you happy that you didthat?
I'm sure you are, but I want tohear from you.
SPEAKER_02 (35:06):
I am happy that I did that.
Uh, I mean, on the subject offear though, is the fear real?
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (35:14):
Yeah.
And I want to say something.
Go ahead.
You're gonna experience fear nomatter what.
I think like the people,everybody, I think there's so
many people think that likenobody walks this earth without
having fear.
I don't care what anybody says.
Like, I feel like you have tofeel the fear and do it anyway.
And that's what courage is, andthat's what makes the difference
(35:38):
between the people thatgraduates this program and the
people that don't, because youknow, fear is gonna be there no
matter what.
And I'm not saying it's bad foryou to say you have fear, or
even if fear still exists today,I think like for a person that's
listening to this episode, islike there's gonna be fear in
absolutely anything that isbigger than the complacency that
(36:02):
is on your life.
Wherever you are comfortable,you can stay there, but you may
not grow there.
But if you are okay withexperiencing a little fear, and
even if you're not okay with it,but you have the courage enough
to step into the fear of theunknown, courage enough to step
into this new experience, Ipromise you that it's gonna be,
(36:23):
you're gonna grow so much fromthat that all of a sudden you're
gonna experience life likeyou've never had it before.
And it's not gonna be easy, butit will be worth it.
And even if it's challenging atthe beginning, you're gonna grow
more than you've ever grown.
So I'm gonna throw it back toyou about that fear moment.
SPEAKER_02 (36:41):
And I will say that one of my favorite books, as
somebody who does not even stillto this day like to read, one of
my favorite books is FailingForward, Failing Force by John
Maxwell, right?
And uh where he talks about likeall the legendary failures who
like we know as great successes,you know, the you know, the
(37:03):
Michael Jordans, you know what Imean?
All of the people who were told,you know, you shouldn't be doing
this, and who struggled at thebeginning.
And I I think that another thingto your point about fear being
the thing that we should neverallow to paralyze us is that we
think that people we believe aresuccessful or that we hold in
(37:27):
high esteem, I should say, whoare embraced by the culture as
being successful, we think thatthey are doing what they're good
at and that they don't deal withfear.
I sub would submit that most ofthose people are actually only
doing what they're good at.
(37:48):
They're literally tormented byfear so much that they will
never ever risk failure to dothe thing that they actually
wish they could do, but they'rebut they think they would mess
it up and all of theirself-esteem would be thrown, you
know, apart because they messedup.
So they stay doing the one thingthey know that they can kill it,
(38:12):
right?
And everybody says, Oh, you'reso great, and they congratulate
themselves that they're sogreat.
But if it comes to doing theother thing that they wish they
really could do, they wouldnever do it because they're
terrified.
It's almost like how people talkabout, oh no, I'm not, I'm not,
I don't leave town, I don't goanywhere.
You're afraid to fly, but youwon't admit it, you know.
(38:33):
Right.
And so you're like, no, no, I'mgood.
And your whole life is nowlimited to your zip code because
you you really are afraid, butyou're just like, no, no, I'm
not afraid.
I I just live a good life.
I I thoroughly enjoy my life.
And you're like, no, actually,you you would enjoy going to at
least, you know, Orlando orwhatever.
Right.
And I think I think there's justso much to be said for that
(38:54):
because we think fear limitsunsuccessful people, but it
actually limits people who seemlike they're succeeding, right?
It's the ones who are, you know,like uber successful, who are
the ones who have really pushedthrough fear.
But the other people who arelike in that, like maybe the
upper echelons of their careers,and and you know, they they may
(39:16):
do other things fairly well, butthey stay in the like a very
small number of things that theyknow they can execute well
because they're afraid.
I just, to your point about lifeexperience and being in a place
where you're like, look, whetheror not you're whether or not
people ridicule me, the peoplewatching me are gonna at the end
(39:39):
of this wish they had mycourage, you know.
So go ahead and ridicule, goahead and you know, eat peanuts
while I'm being torn apart inthe gladiator, you know,
stadium.
But at least I'm trying and atleast I'm stretching and I'm
doing what I know fills me andnourishes me.
Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_01 (40:00):
Absolutely, absolutely.
I love that.
At least you're trying andyou're showing up and you're
doing something and you're aftersomething different.
I love it.
Um, and I'm so proud of you.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
As we like uh wrap up, I havejust two more questions for you.
And you used a beautifulmetaphor in your essay, and you
(40:21):
were describing yourself as avery piece of pottery being
rediscovered.
What does rediscovery look likefor you today?
SPEAKER_02 (40:29):
What does rediscovery look like for me
today?
Wow, well, rediscovery for me, Iwould say, you know, looks like,
I guess, first of all, seeingmyself the way that my creator
sees me, you know.
Seeing seeing myself as whole.
You know, I I I know that Iwouldn't be half as funny as I
(40:54):
am if I haven't, you know what Imean, if I hadn't gone through
some things.
I think that, you know, peoplewho have, you know, struggled
are oftentimes the ones who are,you know, have that comedic
angle.
And so I think, you know,rediscovery for me is coming out
on the other side of this, of adark, like, like I said, like
(41:15):
decades-long, dark, you know,time of having that warped
perception of myself.
And being re-rediscovery isreally seeing myself through the
lenses of the one who is lookingat me like I always knew, you
know, fill in the blank, youknow.
(41:36):
Yeah.
So yeah, that for me is what itis.
So it's, you know, it's it's nothesitating, you know, to
audition and and feel like I am,you know, qualified to meet the
needs of the casting director orwhoever's, you know, looking for
a particular role and you know,has a particular need that uh
(41:59):
that needs to be cast.
SPEAKER_01 (42:01):
Absolutely.
I love that.
I feel like it's it's verypowerful to see someone move
from hatty parts of their lifeto embracing the parts that they
wanted.
And and hearing your story issuch a reflective journey.
And I know that there's probablysomeone listening today that has
been taking the shadow of lifebecause they don't want to be
(42:23):
fully seen in the light.
And I think that this episode isgonna definitely offer a
reflection to them that it'sokay to step into the light,
it's okay to look into themirror, it's okay to dance in
the rain, it's okay to to stepout and try something new, and
that it's it's gonna reveal likean even stronger version of you.
And for anyone that's listeningwho feels disqualified because
(42:46):
of something about their body ortheir past or their story or or
whatever that is, what would youwant them to know?
SPEAKER_02 (42:53):
I would want them, I would want them to just take,
take time, shut down the voices,the noise, right?
Because we're in a we're in aculture that's very steeped in
visual images.
We get told what to like, we gettold what is beautiful, we get
told, you know, all kinds ofstuff in subtle messages.
(43:14):
So I would encourage that personto shut off all of that, just to
do an experiment, just to shutit all off, even like social
media, everything, eventelevision, shut it off, give it
a month and take time to reallyjust drill down and identify
those things that on yourdeathbed you're gonna regret not
(43:36):
trying.
You know, and then just writethose things down.
For me, it was important for meas a Christian to write down all
of the lies I had believed aboutmyself, all the negative chatter
that bubbled up in my mind allthe time.
I wrote it all down, did I tookinventory over days or weeks,
(44:00):
and then I went to scripture andI found all of I pulled all the
verses on that subject, andthose verses that spoke to me, I
wrote them down on a on an indexcard.
And I wrote the lie on, I wrotethe lie on one side, I wrote the
verse on the other, and Icarried those things and I
tattooed my brain, read themevery single day, took them
(44:21):
everywhere I went.
They lived in my purse until Idropped them in the gutter one
day, and then I had to make awhole new set.
But that kind of thing takestime, we don't want to do it,
but the discipline is worth it.
The discipline is worth it.
SPEAKER_01 (44:35):
I love that.
unknown (44:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (44:37):
I love that.
Absolutely love that.
That's that's great, that'sactionable, that's on it.
And I know someone's gonnalisten to this and do it.
And I think thank you so much.
This was amazing.
Uh, thank you so much for justsharing your story so openly
with us today.
And I feel like your journeyreminds us that's that
resilience doesn't always looklike strength on the outside.
(44:59):
And it's, you know, holding itall together, maybe for the
moment.
And sometimes it takes the quietcourage to just face the beliefs
that we've carried aboutourselves and choose that we're
gonna tell a different storytoday, and we're no longer gonna
tell ourselves the same story.
And our why not me moment is onthe way.
(45:20):
And I just want to say thankyou.
This has been another amazingepisode of the Resilience Files
Unlocked, where stories ofresilience reminds us that
healing, growth, transformationare always possible.
If this episode met you at apart of your life where you
really needed it, or if you knowsomeone that needs this episode
today, please share with them,encourage them, let them know
(45:43):
that if Sarah's story exists andshe can unlock and go forward in
her life, you can too.
We appreciate you all forlistening.
We're so excited to shareanother great episode with you.
And um, Sarah, I meant to askyou, do you have socials or
anything that you want toinclude in this episode?
SPEAKER_02 (46:02):
Yeah, I'm uh at voices by Sarah on Instagram,
Sarah Hunt V O, a website, SarahHuntvoiceover.com.
When you feel like life has dealt you a hand of
unfair cards.
Instead of voting, you doubledown.
You stuck in the game.
You faced battles.
You felt broken.
But hey, do us a favor.
Put your hand on your heart.
You feel that?
You're still here.
Welcome to the Resilience FilesUnlocked, where survival meets
(00:25):
transformation.
SPEAKER_01 (00:29):
Welcome back to the Resilience Files Unlocked, a
space where real stories ofresilience are shared with
honesty, reflection, and hope.
As you know, each episode weexplore are the moments in life
that challenge us, shape us, andultimately reveal the strength
we didn't know we had.
Trigger warning before today'sepisode.
Before we begin, we want tooffer you a gentle content note.
(00:52):
Today's episode touches onthemes of childhood trauma,
medical experiences, andfeelings of inadequacy growing
up.
While this story ultimatelymoves toward healing and
empowerment, some listeners mayfind it as parts emotionally
sensitive.
So please take care of yourselfwhile you listen.
I'm so excited to introducetoday's guest.
(01:12):
Today's story comes from SarahHunt.
She's a voice actor, creative,whose journey has been shaped by
both visible and invisiblechallenges, from losing her eye
as a child to navigating yearsof self-doubt, of academic
struggle, and more.
But you know what?
I'm not gonna tell you anymore.
We have Sarah here.
She's gonna read her essay ontoday.
(01:33):
And then we're gonna do what wedo here on the Brazilience
Files.
We're gonna break it down andget into it.
Hi, Sarah.
SPEAKER_02 (01:39):
Hi, thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01 (01:41):
Yes, thank you so much for being on.
SPEAKER_02 (01:44):
When I was 10 months old, I lost my right eye.
So my right eye is a prosthesis.
The loss of my eye wasn't one ofthose good losses where your
family celebrates the fact thatyou're alive because you had to
sacrifice a body part that wasdiseased.
This was an avoidable loss, andit caused a lot of grief,
(02:07):
particularly for my parents andfor me.
The trauma I experienced wasn'ta one-time experience.
It was a repeated traumathroughout my life, which
created a deep, dark well ofinadequacy within me, nourished
by decades-long pressure toperform and maintain a facade of
(02:29):
normalcy.
As a child, I was chronicallywithdrawn and shy.
My socket was irregular in thatit was prone to inflammation,
soreness, and infection everyseveral years, has always been a
renewed trauma because my sockethas basically rejected the new
eye by getting horribly inflamedand irritated for well over a
(02:50):
month until the socket gets usedto the new prosthesis.
I have had to adjust to a newprosthesis while returning to my
everyday life with one eyeinflamed and sore and one time
even bleeding.
Even after adjusting, my sockethas remained sensitive.
Every morning I clear a littlemucus from my eye with water and
(03:12):
saline solution before applyingmakeup to create as much of an
illusion of normalcy as Ipossibly can.
To say that I was plagued by anagging sense of inferiority
would be an understatementgrowing up.
This sense was a core belief, anunshakable truth of which I was
supremely confident because inmy mind I was irretrievably
(03:36):
flawed and insurmountablymarred.
These hardships were aggravatedby the academic challenges I
experienced in school.
I simply couldn't read at all,but I was never diagnosed with
dyslexia.
Standing up to read in class asa young student brought
(03:56):
debilitating fear.
I simply couldn't get the wordsout of my mouth.
My Caribbean parents' solutionfor this was to just make me
make me read a lot at home.
They even signed me up for areading contest at a local
library where I performed sowell that I got a prize of some
sort.
(04:17):
School was incredibly hard and Ilearned to outwork most
challenges.
Needless to say, I credit myparents with my relentless
refusal to quit and my abilityto press through fear and
failure, even in thepostgraduate and professional
programs from which I wouldlater graduate.
(04:37):
My journey brought me to voiceacting in 2020 when a friend
suggested I audition for a partin a dramatized audiobook.
Launching into voice acting feltlike I had finally found where I
belonged because I had beenpainting pictures with my voice
and often making people laugh indoing so throughout my whole
life.
(04:58):
While working on the dramatizedaudiobook, I invested in a new
microphone and jumped into all Ineeded to learn to get started
in voice acting.
This season was a real watershedmoment in my life.
For the first time, I was givingmyself permission to prioritize
my own dreams and interests.
(05:20):
Suddenly things made sense.
I felt a sense of purpose inchallenging people to doubt
their doubts and stopdisqualifying themselves.
As a Christian, I believe allthings will ultimately work
together in my favor.
I do love and live by the quote: In every adversity, there lies a (05:34):
undefined
seed of an equivalent advantage.
The work I was doing was insecret and in many ways
internal.
I told no one until I felt itwas time.
And even then, I only told a fewfriends who loved me and
(05:55):
understood me well enough not toundermine me.
After narrating severalaudiobooks, I pivoted to
corporate voiceover work andexpanded my work.
Always wanting to be takenseriously as a voice actor, I
signed up for my first on-cameraacting class a few years ago.
(06:16):
When I walked into my firstclass, the instructor looked at
me and said, You don't want tobe on camera?
I swatted down the questiondismissively with a no, I'm a
voice actor.
I knew who I was, and I knew ifthis man knew who he was dealing
with, the one-eyed little girl,he would never have asked me
that question.
(06:36):
But several months later, thestrangest thing happened.
One evening, while I satwatching the instructor guide a
student through a scene, Isuddenly felt something unlatch
on the inside of me.
It was as if a light had beenturned on.
Somehow, this concept ofon-camera acting, which had
never occurred to me as beingremotely possible or accept or
(07:01):
accessible to me, made all thesense in the world.
As I sat there, prayerful andsuddenly tuned into the voice of
my Heavenly Father, I realizedthat in identifying myself as a
voice actor alone, I had quietlycompromised myself because I was
satisfied to stay hidden.
(07:22):
Whereas I had once thought voiceacting was my destination, I
suddenly realized that voiceacting was always supposed to be
a foundation or an access pointto other ventures, including
acting on camera or on stage andstand-up comedy.
The thought literally took mybreath away.
My little booth was neversupposed to be a destination.
(07:45):
It was a door, much like thewardrobe in C.S.
Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, andthe Wardrobe.
Since that day, I have been castin three short films and nine
YouTube sketches.
As a creative who never had thechance to live out her creative
identity as a young girl, I havefelt very much like a precious
piece of broken and long-buriedpottery that has been discovered
(08:10):
at an archaeological dig.
The work I've been doing,including my study of the
Meisner technique in actingclass, is helping me overcome
decades of toxic performance.
I have spent most of my life onthe altar of other people's
expectations.
Now I am authorizing myself tomake myself proud.
SPEAKER_01 (08:30):
Wow, Sarah, thank you so much for trusting us with
that story.
There's so much honesty andvulnerability in what you
shared, and it's so beautifuland just eye-opening, you know.
Um wow.
Let's hop into it.
First off, I before we hop intoit, I should ask, how are you
doing?
How do you feel after you'veread that out loud?
SPEAKER_02 (08:52):
I feel good.
I feel good.
I mean, I've been, you know, onthis, in this journey of, you
know, just like I said, justuncovering these layers and
layers.
And it's um, you know, it isthere fear, you know, uh, you
know, there's fear.
But I decided I'm tired of beingafraid.
(09:15):
And as much as as much as Iwould like for the fear to go
away, it's like, you know,creatives lots of times we want
to wait until we're inspired tocreate.
We want to wait and encouragedto do what we're supposed to be
doing the whole time andconsistently.
And I'm realizing I I'm notsupposed to wait until I'm not
afraid, you know.
SPEAKER_01 (09:36):
I agree.
Yeah.
Let's go back to the beginningof your story.
You lost your eye when you werevery young, obviously, but the
emotional impact followed youthroughout your childhood.
It wasn't just a one-timesituation.
When did you first begin tounderstand you were different
than everyone else?
SPEAKER_02 (09:54):
Well, I think I always knew it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, because my eye was, itwas, you know, it always creates
the mucus, you know, and alwayshas.
So in the morning, my dad, youknow, would be so patient and
would help me with it.
And I always had a sense that Iwas different.
So being chronically withdrawn,that was why I was chronically
withdrawn.
Because I would walk around withmy head down and my my arms just
(10:17):
by my side.
I was, I struggled.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (10:20):
Yeah.
I'm so sorry that youexperienced that.
And I'm so happy that you hadyour dad and your mom there for
you, and they were verysupportive during that journey.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (10:31):
They've always been very much so.
SPEAKER_01 (10:34):
That's beautiful.
You talk about carrying a deepsense of inadequacy growing up.
How did that belief startforming in you?
Or really for you?
SPEAKER_02 (10:45):
How did that belief start forming in me?
I think um, you know, I thinkthere's something, it's not
something anyone said, right?
It's um which it could havebeen, but it would never was.
I'm grateful I was neverbullied, I'm grateful I didn't
have anybody say anything, youknow, to demean me.
(11:05):
But I think, you know, we we dohave a tendency to compare our
worst to others' best,naturally.
I think we do that.
And so I think for me that waswhat I did.
I think I looked around myselfand I couldn't find anyone, you
know, who's really struggling atall, at least to me, right?
It didn't people werestruggling, and so that's where
(11:27):
that came from, I think.
And then it didn't help thatthere was nothing that I felt
like I was good at.
You know, if you're if you're acreative and you're and you have
that as an outlet, and maybeyou're struggling academically,
you you at least have somethingyou can hang your little
self-esteem on.
And I didn't I didn't have anyof those things.
I, you know, I did play musicalinstruments, I played the piano
(11:50):
and the violin, but even thatwas hard, right?
The reading challenges Istruggled with in reading
English were the same challengesI had in reading music.
And so it was just a lot of workall the way around.
I was working hard.
SPEAKER_01 (12:05):
Yeah, well, definitely.
I I can tell you, I know youdefinitely were a hard worker.
And for your parents tochallenge you so much as you
read in your essay, we see thatyou described like feeling
pressure to maintain theillusion of normalcy.
What did that look like for youday to day as a young person?
Because I'm sure someone hearingthe story and they're wondering,
(12:27):
like, well, I have to do thesame thing, and wondering if
their story relates to yours.
What was your day-to-day lookinglike?
SPEAKER_02 (12:33):
I mean, I just did my childhood was just like
everybody else's.
Yeah.
And that's a testament to myparents, right?
Like, yeah, very much so.
Amazing parents who, you know,really struggled with this, but
decided, it's like theyconspired together and they were
like, she's gonna have a normallife, she's gonna do everything
she wants to do.
(12:54):
She wants to swim, she wanna,you know, so and and and I'm
able-bodied.
So I don't at all compare myselfto people who do have, you know,
challenges in that they theyhave limitations that limit
their physical capacity.
But because my parents were verymuch like, no, no, no, it's
okay, just do do, you know,we're gonna just do, we're gonna
(13:17):
pretend everything is normal orjust, you know, carry ourselves
as if everything is okay, itwasn't there was no room for me
to really talk and be able tovent or even share that I was in
pain.
So when I did cry about it,which I did, cry about, you
know, just having one eye,sometimes it would be at
(13:39):
bedtime, you know, it would belike, well, listen, you're
upsetting your mom, you know.
And so I I I learned to kind of,okay, I definitely don't want to
upset, you know, my folks.
So let me keep a lid on this andkeep just keep it to myself.
Yeah.
And so that that was just sortof a, I think, the place where
(14:03):
the unhealthiness kicked in.
SPEAKER_01 (14:05):
Yeah, discussing the unhealthiness of that when you
kept the lid on and compressingyour emotions and feelings.
And at the time, school wasobviously so incredibly
challenging for you.
Although you were going throughday-to-day as a normal young
person, you still had a set ofchallenges that other people
didn't experience.
(14:26):
And how when did you feelcomfortable enough to just be
like, I know that mom is gonnabe upset, but this is my true
feelings?
Or did you ever get to a pointthat existed like that?
SPEAKER_02 (14:38):
Yeah, no.
No, you know, I was, yeah.
And it it it was an it it wasjust something that was just too
hard, I think, for them.
Yeah.
Then also they, you know, myparents are are from Trinidad
and Guyana, and we were inEngland, and and so, and we
(15:01):
weren't, I didn't grow up with,you know, surrounded by family
and you know what I mean,extended family and all of that.
So I very much, it was just usfour.
It was just me, my mom, my dad,my brother.
And so they were very much like,look, it's us four, no more.
We gotta, you know what I mean?
We do what you gotta do, we'lldo what we have to do, taking
(15:21):
care of you guys.
And you know, you work hard,we're working hard.
And that was kind of theparadigm that I grew up in.
So yeah, it wasn't, it wasn'tlike anybody, and this was a
long time ago, I mean.
So, so it wasn't like theconversations that we're having
now about and you know,emotional grief and all of those
(15:42):
things.
These are not things we talkedabout.
And I don't to be candid, Idon't think Caribbean people
talk about it to this day.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:49):
Of course, no, uh, that's uh yes, I understand
completely.
Yeah, and also just in general,like, you know, as time grows
and changes, we know that theolder generation definitely had
a lot, had it a lot harder andtougher, and their parents
probably had very little empathyor you know, no capacity to
(16:12):
allow them to say things becausethey just had to work and get
home and feed, and it was acycle of that, and it was not a
lot of time to know like yourtrue feelings of how you're
doing.
It's about getting day to day.
We're working hard to make sureyou can go to school and good
night.
And um good night.
That's right.
Yeah, that's exactly what Imean.
Yeah.
During that time you were havingsome difficulty, you said
(16:35):
struggling with reading.
How did struggling with readingshape your confidence during
those early years?
SPEAKER_02 (16:40):
I had no confidence whatsoever, like at all.
It was the worst thing ever.
I mean, I know it wasn't theworst thing ever.
I again, I I know there's worse.
But I was actually just thinkingabout this as I was reading my
essay, like how far I've come,because I could not have done
(17:01):
that, right?
Like I would see the words and Ijust couldn't, I just couldn't
get them out of my mouth.
I don't know how to describe it.
And similarly, when I waspracticing piano and learning
how to sight read, I neverreally learned how to sight read
because I could see the note,and if you ask me what note I'm
looking at, I'd say that's D.
But to to make it sound like amelody, ah, no.
(17:26):
And I would spend most of mysemester when I got to college
playing piano, I'd spend most ofmy semester sounding like I
didn't know how to play at allbecause I was sight reading and
I couldn't remember where myhands had to go on the keyboard.
But once I didn't have to readanymore, because I'm a kinetic
learner, I I sounded immediatelylike like I had been playing my
(17:51):
whole life.
But uh yeah, I the theconfidence uh uh wasn't at all
there.
Um, it was completely scuttledby my inability to read and or
do math or science or you know,there wasn't anything I could do
well, it was bad.
SPEAKER_01 (18:09):
Oh, but you did your parents did they kind of push
you to be a part of a librarycompetition, right?
So when you uh got an award forthat, you know, reading books,
what was that experience likefor you?
Did that boost any of yourconfidence in reading?
SPEAKER_02 (18:25):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I have no recollection of thatcompetition.
Yeah, I don't know, you know,what what the parents for the
parents.
SPEAKER_01 (18:38):
You were like, I'm doing this and I'm out.
SPEAKER_02 (18:40):
I'm out, yeah.
And clearly I have no, I mean,because my mother talks about
it, and I'm like, okay, youknow, so I just repeat that
story, but I'm like, I rememberthe library.
I know we used to go there alot, but do I remember that?
Not at all.
I don't remember that.
SPEAKER_01 (18:54):
No, I understand.
It sounds like you were carryingthe law internally while trying
to like just function ineveryday life.
And you know, like you weretrying your best to also like in
a sense be performative and makesure that your parents, you
know, you listen to them and youwere like, okay.
And um, we'll get more into it,but I feel like as we make the
(19:16):
transition, you started todiscover your path in life.
And I feel like your storybegins to shift through
creativity.
So I wanted to know more aboutthat.
Like, at what moment did you saythat let me explore the arts and
use this as an outlet to, youknow, express myself more and
(19:36):
allow myself some freedom?
Like you said, um Yeah, that's agreat question.
SPEAKER_02 (19:42):
I I mean, I began to be involved in uh I became a
Christian in college and I beganto be involved in dance ministry
when I was an adult, like when Iwas quite, quite old, you know,
arguably.
So I had been dancing for awhile, and that was really my
(20:03):
only expression.
And it wasn't a limit, it was itwas great.
It was very, very, it's beenvery helpful.
It's been a safe place for me.
Dance has been a place where Ireally have felt like the one
place where I've been able tofeel safe, where I have felt
whole and where I have felt likeI feel God's pleasure, you know,
(20:24):
as I'm as I'm moving.
But to do anything else, Ididn't have the courage and um
always was afraid to do that.
Um I think I think the pandemicwas was the thing, you know.
Like I think that was the casefor a lot of people during the
pandemic.
It was a lot of soul searchingthat was going on.
(20:46):
I listened to there's a book bya woman named Bronny Ware called
The Top Five Regrets of theDying.
And I I listened to that bookvery early in the pandemic and
it wrecked me.
It really kind of challenged,provoked, and sh and really uh,
you know, shook me because oneof the top five regrets of the
(21:07):
dying is I I think actually thefirst regret that she talks
about is um is that people oftensay they they not living a life
that was true to themselves asopposed to what other people
expected of them.
Um and so that caused me to sortof begin this journey of really
just some deep introspection,digging in and figuring out what
(21:31):
I would like and really askingmyself those questions, because
you know, you get in the habitof being performative, like you
said, and you don't realize howmuch you aren't enjoying what
you do in your life.
And so uh that's that's whatcaused me to even mention to my
friend voice acting, and shehappened to have a friend who
(21:53):
was a novelist, and that's how Igot the audiobook, um, the
dramatized audiobook upon it.
SPEAKER_01 (21:59):
Nice.
unknown (22:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:00):
I love that.
So okay, you your friendmentioned to you about the voice
acting opportunity during thepandemic.
Yes.
And initially before then, wereyou drawn to voice acting?
Did you I know you've had somepassion for it, of course, but
when did you was your aha momentof like saying, you know what,
voice acting feels like a safeplace creatively?
SPEAKER_03 (22:22):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:23):
Because maybe people can't see me, or what was that
for you?
SPEAKER_02 (22:26):
Yeah, great question.
So I think I know I had thoughtof voice acting before I had
that conversation with herbecause I had actually purchased
a book.
I know I went on Amazon, I went,I ordered a book, I bought the
book, I got the book.
I never read the book.
The book stayed on my shelf.
Yeah, we all can relate to that.
(22:47):
Yeah, you do.
You're like, I have a book, youknow.
I'm I'm committed.
I got a book.
I didn't read that book.
That book stayed on my bookshelffor I'm gonna say a a year, a
couple years before I had anhonest moment with myself and
was like, oh, please give thebook to the goodwill.
At least let somebody, you know,somebody who's gonna read the
(23:08):
book, read the book.
And so I I ended up getting ridof the book and I didn't do
anything else with it.
And so it was really, it wasjust me, train of thought,
conversation with this, withthis woman I was working with at
the time.
She was like, Oh, voice acting.
I was like, Yeah, you know,because you think you hear about
how we're encouraged to identifythings that we do naturally and
(23:32):
then find something that kind ofis along that those vein that
vein.
And I've always played gameswith my voice.
I've always, you know, channeledmindsets, attitudes, you know,
people just being silly, justbeing just being silly.
So that's how that conversationcame up.
And then to your point aboutbeing hidden, I think when I
(23:54):
figured out that my closet wasmy studio, I was like, yeah,
this is this is amazing.
I didn't have to, you don't haveto clean up, you don't have to
dress up, you don't have, youknow, you don't have to do
anything except make sure thatyou haven't been consuming a lot
(24:16):
of dairy and sugar and that youdon't have a cold.
I mean, these are obviously youhave to take care of your your
vessel, but besides that,everybody guess how you look,
right?
And so because I was always sortof, not sort of, but always
preoccupied.
Like from the minute I wake upto the minute I close my eyes.
Yeah.
(24:37):
When I'm not in my home, I'mpreoccupied with, you know, my
eye and what's going on with it.
So not to have to be preoccupiedwith it, I that's why I thought
that I was onto something, youknow, that I had discovered
something.
SPEAKER_01 (24:50):
Absolutely.
That makes a lot of sense.
Uh completely makes sense.
You mentioned that you kept thisstream very private at first.
Why was it important for you toprotect that part of your life?
SPEAKER_02 (25:01):
I you know why?
I think I figured out that thiswas gonna be a huge change for
me.
Now, on the inside of me, itwasn't a huge change because I
had been making these littlebaby steps internally, doing the
introspection, doing theanalysis, you know, the
self-assessments.
(25:22):
So to me, these things madesense.
But you know what I mean?
But when you've got people onthe outside of you who are like,
oh, this is the box she fits in,this box.
And you take and do somethingover here in left field, they're
like not authorized.
What are you doing?
Like, why would you?
Are you out of your are youokay?
(25:44):
Yeah, okay.
Do we need to talk?
And you're like too manyopinions.
Yeah, it's so it's too muchenergy, right?
And so I actually tell peoplethis like if you're gonna do
something that's that for you isa big change or is big for you,
and you're seeing it, likewriting a book, I mean, sorry,
reading a book, starting abusiness, something big you're
(26:05):
gonna launch into, you don'thave to tell everybody.
In fact, it's probably best thatyou don't because the energy
that you take defending youridea, literally just writing
down the not even the words, butthe people's tone of voice when
they say, okay, right?
Like that communicates like, areyou really gonna pull that, you
(26:27):
know?
And so now your mind you'rethinking, she doesn't think I
could do it.
I don't know if I can.
All of that is time because it'senergy that's being sucked out
of you, and you need to takethat same energy and direct it
towards the target, which isyour goal.
So I think I realized for methat was what I had to do.
SPEAKER_01 (26:47):
Absolutely.
I think, yeah, sometimes I feellike the things we begin quietly
end up being the things thatchanges our life the most.
And I do believe too what you'resaying, especially if it's
completely different than thething you've been focused on,
the people know you most for.
You will sometimes have some, Idon't want to call them haters,
(27:07):
but some people that aredoubters because they've never
seen you operate in that lane.
So they're gonna have their ownpreconceived notions of like,
but it's gonna do this and thisand this and this and put
unnecessary, unfiltered thoughtsin your head that you don't need
to think about if you're alreadyin motion on it.
Stay emotion on it and focus onyour own vision, your own time,
(27:29):
your own what you want to do.
So yeah, I agree with you onthat.
Yeah, I want to hear about themoment of realization for you.
You described that a powerfulmoment during an acting class
where something internally justshifted inside of you.
Can you walk us through thatmoment when something that
unlashed inside of you, whereyou move from the moment of
saying, you know what, I don'twant to be seen.
(27:51):
I'm good.
He doesn't know me.
He doesn't know I have one eye.
So why?
Like, I'm not about to putmyself out there.
I don't want to embarrassmyself.
I'm scared about it.
To saying, you know what?
No, I deserve to be seen and I'mready to step out of this box
that I created myself.
I put myself in this box.
Very much.
Tell us about that moment.
SPEAKER_02 (28:11):
Yeah.
So I was sitting in this class,and it was just a just a
darkened warehouse where thisclass would go on, and it was
great, great class.
And the instructor was workingwith someone.
I don't remember anything elseabout the day.
It wasn't like I had had aparticularly deep and insightful
moment beforehand, or the wholeday had been spent walking on
(28:33):
the, you know, in a in a parkwith the breeze blowing.
But you know what I mean?
Like it wasn't like that.
But I just in that in thisparticular moment, as I was
listening to another persongetting instruction, because I
was always, always taking notes.
Like I'm always listening forstuff that may help me.
I'm not just waiting for, youknow, the instructor to be
(28:54):
instructing me.
And as I sat there listening, itwas it was like something, and
the the word I use is unlatchedbecause it was as if it wasn't
like a door flung open, right?
But it was like this door hadbeen, you know, locked and
padlocked and bolted, and allof, you know, like the the lock
on the door was like, you know,and it was like, you know, you
(29:19):
can you can you can actually youcan actually come in now, you
know, uh the you being, youknow, the the the you know just
concepts, thoughts, ideas,dreams, you know, these things
that I have, you know, been somuch like, no, these are things
that are forbidden.
These are things that I'mdisqualified.
(29:41):
I'm not I'm disqualified fromeven envisioning these things
for myself.
And it wasn't like I was like,I'm gonna be violent.
You know, it wasn't even that.
It wasn't about that at all, butit was just like I'm no longer
saying no to myself.
Good.
So yeah, the the unlatching wasvery much like, you know, you
(30:04):
know, like, you know, really,you know, and then in that I
went from because when Idiscovered voice acting, I have
been really excited.
I had and I'm still excitedabout it, to be clear.
Like I love voice acting, and I,you know, I love, you know, uh
the idea of narrating, you knowwhat I mean, all kinds of like
(30:25):
feature films or whatever.
It's not like I'm saying thatI've left that behind me, but I
genuinely was like, this is it.
This is this is where I belong,this is who I am, this is where
I fit, and nowhere else will Ifit.
Like I don't fit anywhere else.
And it was only in that momentthat I realized, and it was like
(30:46):
it was almost frighteningbecause you don't realize how
much you can convince yourselfof a lie.
You can convince yourself, andit's not that you go through a
lot of work to do it, butbecause your beliefs about
yourself are so strong, sothey're so strong and they're
(31:07):
warped, like they're justthey're like all the way wrong.
You don't and and you're like,yeah, this is true.
This is this is this is right,I'm right about this, and you're
wrong about it, like on everylevel, you're wrong about it,
you know, and you don't realizeit until something causes you to
be like, hey, hey, hey, hey, andyou're like, huh?
(31:27):
And you're like, wait, I wasasleep, you know.
Yeah.
But that's how it was in thatmoment.
I was like, yeah.
So it was it was intense, it wasgood.
It was like that.
SPEAKER_01 (31:38):
That makes complete sense.
Yeah.
I mean, if you continue to tellyourself something over and
over, you'll convince yourselfto believe it.
Your brain is just, you know,half a thought away from
believing a dream is reality.
A reality is a dream, and we arehere, you know.
I also think like this just likeshares for this is just a great
example for the audience oflike, what is that lie that you
(32:00):
continue to tell yourselfbecause of your own
insecurities?
And it's not bad to haveinsecurities.
We all have them in one way oranother.
And it's because of know our ownthoughts of the way that maybe
beauty is supposed to look or umeducation is supposed to look,
or by this age I should haveXYZ.
And we tell ourselves thesethings, but the reality is, is
(32:21):
like, no, we can make whateverthat reality for ourselves.
And I think it takes a lot ofsoul searching and a lot of
digging and a lot of like, Ilove myself enough to blah,
blah, blah.
And to putting that work in.
I want to know how did thatrealization for you change the
way that you saw yourself afterthat?
SPEAKER_02 (32:37):
Wow, that's a good question.
It didn't change the way that Isaw myself in a very radical
way, you know.
It wasn't like, yeah, it was, itwas, it was like I just began to
question, you know, but why notyou?
Why not?
(32:59):
You know?
Yeah.
So that's the question that justkeeps coming up as I continue
to, you know, hesitantly put onefoot in front of the other.
You know what I mean?
So it's not yeah, so it'sdefinitely not like I, you know,
woke up and was like, look atyou, honey, you're just as fine
(33:21):
as you could be.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Like it's it's every time thethe thought comes, and it comes
less now and less loudly nowthan it did before.
But yeah, I I've become strongerand quicker and more efficient
and adept at swatting it away.
(33:43):
You know, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (33:44):
Yeah.
Yeah.
What it sounds like to me isthat it gave you, it kind of
gave you permission to likeexpand beyond the limits that
you place on yourself of sayingwhy not me.
And maybe it wasn't a superiorradical change right away, but
to me, it like it allowed theseed that was already planted in
you to start taking root and tostart growing.
(34:06):
And I think the more that youwater that, the more that grows.
It's gonna become a veryfruitful tree that's gonna be
not only why not me, this is me.
It's gonna say, it can be youtoo.
And I'm gonna do this and thisand that and that.
And it's gonna be like, hey,look in the mirror like I am a
bad uh woman.
I do look good, and I am, youknow, and it's just like I think
(34:29):
you know, we all need that seedto be planted in us, and we need
that seed to kind of unlock andbe planted deep into soil where
it's worded enough thatsomething starts to grow, and
then boom, you get your why notme moment.
I appreciate you sharing that.
As um, we move to the end ofthis podcast episode.
I want to know just a little bitdeeper on who you became.
(34:50):
I feel like probably so much haschanged since that moment.
You stepped into on-cameraacting and you're doing more
creative work.
What has that experience beenlike for you?
And are you happy that you didthat?
I'm sure you are, but I want tohear from you.
SPEAKER_02 (35:06):
I am happy that I did that.
Uh, I mean, on the subject offear though, is the fear real?
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (35:14):
Yeah.
And I want to say something.
Go ahead.
You're gonna experience fear nomatter what.
I think like the people,everybody, I think there's so
many people think that likenobody walks this earth without
having fear.
I don't care what anybody says.
Like, I feel like you have tofeel the fear and do it anyway.
And that's what courage is, andthat's what makes the difference
(35:38):
between the people thatgraduates this program and the
people that don't, because youknow, fear is gonna be there no
matter what.
And I'm not saying it's bad foryou to say you have fear, or
even if fear still exists today,I think like for a person that's
listening to this episode, islike there's gonna be fear in
absolutely anything that isbigger than the complacency that
(36:02):
is on your life.
Wherever you are comfortable,you can stay there, but you may
not grow there.
But if you are okay withexperiencing a little fear, and
even if you're not okay with it,but you have the courage enough
to step into the fear of theunknown, courage enough to step
into this new experience, Ipromise you that it's gonna be,
(36:23):
you're gonna grow so much fromthat that all of a sudden you're
gonna experience life likeyou've never had it before.
And it's not gonna be easy, butit will be worth it.
And even if it's challenging atthe beginning, you're gonna grow
more than you've ever grown.
So I'm gonna throw it back toyou about that fear moment.
SPEAKER_02 (36:41):
And I will say that one of my favorite books, as
somebody who does not even stillto this day like to read, one of
my favorite books is FailingForward, Failing Force by John
Maxwell, right?
And uh where he talks about likeall the legendary failures who
like we know as great successes,you know, the you know, the
(37:03):
Michael Jordans, you know what Imean?
All of the people who were told,you know, you shouldn't be doing
this, and who struggled at thebeginning.
And I I think that another thingto your point about fear being
the thing that we should neverallow to paralyze us is that we
think that people we believe aresuccessful or that we hold in
(37:27):
high esteem, I should say, whoare embraced by the culture as
being successful, we think thatthey are doing what they're good
at and that they don't deal withfear.
I sub would submit that most ofthose people are actually only
doing what they're good at.
(37:48):
They're literally tormented byfear so much that they will
never ever risk failure to dothe thing that they actually
wish they could do, but they'rebut they think they would mess
it up and all of theirself-esteem would be thrown, you
know, apart because they messedup.
So they stay doing the one thingthey know that they can kill it,
(38:12):
right?
And everybody says, Oh, you'reso great, and they congratulate
themselves that they're sogreat.
But if it comes to doing theother thing that they wish they
really could do, they wouldnever do it because they're
terrified.
It's almost like how people talkabout, oh no, I'm not, I'm not,
I don't leave town, I don't goanywhere.
You're afraid to fly, but youwon't admit it, you know.
(38:33):
Right.
And so you're like, no, no, I'mgood.
And your whole life is nowlimited to your zip code because
you you really are afraid, butyou're just like, no, no, I'm
not afraid.
I I just live a good life.
I I thoroughly enjoy my life.
And you're like, no, actually,you you would enjoy going to at
least, you know, Orlando orwhatever.
Right.
And I think I think there's justso much to be said for that
(38:54):
because we think fear limitsunsuccessful people, but it
actually limits people who seemlike they're succeeding, right?
It's the ones who are, you know,like uber successful, who are
the ones who have really pushedthrough fear.
But the other people who arelike in that, like maybe the
upper echelons of their careers,and and you know, they they may
(39:16):
do other things fairly well, butthey stay in the like a very
small number of things that theyknow they can execute well
because they're afraid.
I just, to your point about lifeexperience and being in a place
where you're like, look, whetheror not you're whether or not
people ridicule me, the peoplewatching me are gonna at the end
(39:39):
of this wish they had mycourage, you know.
So go ahead and ridicule, goahead and you know, eat peanuts
while I'm being torn apart inthe gladiator, you know,
stadium.
But at least I'm trying and atleast I'm stretching and I'm
doing what I know fills me andnourishes me.
Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_01 (40:00):
Absolutely, absolutely.
I love that.
At least you're trying andyou're showing up and you're
doing something and you're aftersomething different.
I love it.
Um, and I'm so proud of you.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
As we like uh wrap up, I havejust two more questions for you.
And you used a beautifulmetaphor in your essay, and you
(40:21):
were describing yourself as avery piece of pottery being
rediscovered.
What does rediscovery look likefor you today?
SPEAKER_02 (40:29):
What does rediscovery look like for me
today?
Wow, well, rediscovery for me, Iwould say, you know, looks like,
I guess, first of all, seeingmyself the way that my creator
sees me, you know.
Seeing seeing myself as whole.
You know, I I I know that Iwouldn't be half as funny as I
(40:54):
am if I haven't, you know what Imean, if I hadn't gone through
some things.
I think that, you know, peoplewho have, you know, struggled
are oftentimes the ones who are,you know, have that comedic
angle.
And so I think, you know,rediscovery for me is coming out
on the other side of this, of adark, like, like I said, like
(41:15):
decades-long, dark, you know,time of having that warped
perception of myself.
And being re-rediscovery isreally seeing myself through the
lenses of the one who is lookingat me like I always knew, you
know, fill in the blank, youknow.
(41:36):
Yeah.
So yeah, that for me is what itis.
So it's, you know, it's it's nothesitating, you know, to
audition and and feel like I am,you know, qualified to meet the
needs of the casting director orwhoever's, you know, looking for
a particular role and you know,has a particular need that uh
(41:59):
that needs to be cast.
SPEAKER_01 (42:01):
Absolutely.
I love that.
I feel like it's it's verypowerful to see someone move
from hatty parts of their lifeto embracing the parts that they
wanted.
And and hearing your story issuch a reflective journey.
And I know that there's probablysomeone listening today that has
been taking the shadow of lifebecause they don't want to be
(42:23):
fully seen in the light.
And I think that this episode isgonna definitely offer a
reflection to them that it'sokay to step into the light,
it's okay to look into themirror, it's okay to dance in
the rain, it's okay to to stepout and try something new, and
that it's it's gonna reveal likean even stronger version of you.
And for anyone that's listeningwho feels disqualified because
(42:46):
of something about their body ortheir past or their story or or
whatever that is, what would youwant them to know?
SPEAKER_02 (42:53):
I would want them, I would want them to just take,
take time, shut down the voices,the noise, right?
Because we're in a we're in aculture that's very steeped in
visual images.
We get told what to like, we gettold what is beautiful, we get
told, you know, all kinds ofstuff in subtle messages.
(43:14):
So I would encourage that personto shut off all of that, just to
do an experiment, just to shutit all off, even like social
media, everything, eventelevision, shut it off, give it
a month and take time to reallyjust drill down and identify
those things that on yourdeathbed you're gonna regret not
(43:36):
trying.
You know, and then just writethose things down.
For me, it was important for meas a Christian to write down all
of the lies I had believed aboutmyself, all the negative chatter
that bubbled up in my mind allthe time.
I wrote it all down, did I tookinventory over days or weeks,
(44:00):
and then I went to scripture andI found all of I pulled all the
verses on that subject, andthose verses that spoke to me, I
wrote them down on a on an indexcard.
And I wrote the lie on, I wrotethe lie on one side, I wrote the
verse on the other, and Icarried those things and I
tattooed my brain, read themevery single day, took them
(44:21):
everywhere I went.
They lived in my purse until Idropped them in the gutter one
day, and then I had to make awhole new set.
But that kind of thing takestime, we don't want to do it,
but the discipline is worth it.
The discipline is worth it.
SPEAKER_01 (44:35):
I love that.
unknown (44:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (44:37):
I love that.
Absolutely love that.
That's that's great, that'sactionable, that's on it.
And I know someone's gonnalisten to this and do it.
And I think thank you so much.
This was amazing.
Uh, thank you so much for justsharing your story so openly
with us today.
And I feel like your journeyreminds us that's that
resilience doesn't always looklike strength on the outside.
(44:59):
And it's, you know, holding itall together, maybe for the
moment.
And sometimes it takes the quietcourage to just face the beliefs
that we've carried aboutourselves and choose that we're
gonna tell a different storytoday, and we're no longer gonna
tell ourselves the same story.
And our why not me moment is onthe way.
(45:20):
And I just want to say thankyou.
This has been another amazingepisode of the Resilience Files
Unlocked, where stories ofresilience reminds us that
healing, growth, transformationare always possible.
If this episode met you at apart of your life where you
really needed it, or if you knowsomeone that needs this episode
today, please share with them,encourage them, let them know
(45:43):
that if Sarah's story exists andshe can unlock and go forward in
her life, you can too.
We appreciate you all forlistening.
We're so excited to shareanother great episode with you.
And um, Sarah, I meant to askyou, do you have socials or
anything that you want toinclude in this episode?
SPEAKER_02 (46:02):
Yeah, I'm uh at voices by Sarah on Instagram,
Sarah Hunt V O, a website, SarahHuntvoiceover.com.
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